To meet an anticipated increase in user demand for high data rate and unproved service quality in the future the 3GGP has identified that it will be desirable to develop new networks for deployment in the medium to long term providing data rates of up to 100 MBPS in the downlink direction and 50 MBPS in the uplink direction. In order to achieve this increased data rate with acceptable quality such networks will implement OFDMA and have a maximum downlink transmission bandwidth of 20 MHz.
Notwithstanding the desired 20 MHz peak bandwidth criterion set out above, it is likely that for one reason or another cells with lower bandwidth such as 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, or even 1.25 MHz or 2.5 MHz will also exist. It is also desirable that UEs (User Equipments) having different reception capabilities, i.e. reception bandwidths will be able to communicate with such networks. As will be appreciated, higher capability handsets are likely to be more complex and therefore more expensive, and thus some users will be willing to trade off performance to obtain a cheaper handset.